This invention relates to an apparatus for effecting quantitative and qualitative analyses on the basis of chemiluminescence in medial science, pharmacology, chemical analysis and foodstuff industry.
A conventional chemiluminescent detector comprises a reaction coil 15 for mixing a chemiluminescent reagent and a test sample and inducing a luminous reaction, a flow cell 16 which is a portion for actually detecting luminescence, and a photoelectric tube 17 for converting an optical signal to an electric signal, as shown in FIG. 3. The reaction coil 15 and the flow cell 16 are separate components and are connected by a stainless steel tube.
However, in the conventional chemiluminescent detector as mentioned above, the reaction unit and the detection unit are separate components and are connected by piping. Therefore, since chemiluminescence occurring in the reaction unit attenuates while the test sample is transferred to the detection unit it is very difficult to detect very weak luminescent. Moreover, a machining process is necessary for the production of the reaction unit and the detection unit, there is a limitation to miniaturization and a very small quantity of a test sample of a nano-liter order cannot be handled. Another problem is that the cost of production is high because precision machining is necessary.